Pro release zombodavilki on iOS and thoughts about the publishers

This is, perhaps, the final article, which will complement to some extent the previous stories about the release of zombodavilki on Google Play , Web Player and Windows Phone 8 .

It will be about starting on the AppStore. In addition, part of the article will be about collaboration with the publisher, and as an addition - a few words about recent launches on new platforms and the results of the project, in general.

AppStore situation

The release of the game took place only in the spring of 2014, although it should have happened six months or even a year ago, but more about that later.
')
Start the release pleased. We hit the top of the CIS, and took a good position, but it lasted only a few days.

An unpleasant surprise was the presence of several bugs in the release version, which upset the players and the score eventually dropped to 3.7 . The main reason was that Admob launched crooked banners into the grid, which automatically transferred the player to the advertising application. This is a serious joint, the company has admitted its guilt.

About 4 days hung in the top, and during this time the peak was 10k downloads per day .
Then the situation worsened greatly, and at the moment there are no more than 500 installations per day.



ARPU increased due to full-screen advertising, which is pretty cash on iOS and which was not on WP8. Actually, the main income from the game turned out just thanks to advertising, and I must say that it could also be multiplied, but did not begin to "squeeze." Now we are showing full-screen banners from the second level and higher, but a large audience does not reach beyond the first level, throws the game and therefore will never see these banners. For some reason, micropayments did not go well, they were paid relatively rarely.

Later the fix was filed, and the score gradually crawled to the mark of 4.5, which is quite acceptable.

Why the game went so badly on this platform is hard to say. Most likely, the point is in the low quality of the game - there are many flaws in terms of gameplay, balance and graphics. But the publisher believes that the problem is just in low ARPU and the inconsistency of the game for features on the platform, although the game still got features on GooglePlay and the Windows Phone Store.

Despite the poor results on downloads, the very fact of the launch is very good. There was a new experience, an additional audience.
And she, by the way, almost all of the CIS. In other countries, almost no one learned about the game.

Evolution Icons

Not so long ago changed the icon on all sides. This is the second substitution, and it looks like the final one. We returned to the very first version of the icon, which was once created on the basis of a game poster and which was rejected because of poor readability on small resolutions.



Unfortunately, what effect it had on mobile platforms, I do not know, but in Odnoklassniki after a similar replacement registration increased by 30-40% .

Subtleties of developer and publisher relationships

Porting When such a question arises, it is necessary to think well here - who will do this?
Some publishers may take on this task (for example, like mine), but this may entail unpleasant things.
Immediately specify what kind of porting in question. The point is to integrate the special HeroCraft SDK, which is responsible for cross-promo, rate me, rating, and so on.
Unfortunately, this package integrates problematically and this is the main reason for such a strong release delay on iOS.

For myself, I have already decided that, if possible, I myself will be engaged in porting to various platforms, since it turns out relatively well, and the process itself is interesting.

As far as I remember, apart from the SDK, they practically did not modify anything. Is that improved the quality of some textures and added push-notifications about the restoration of gasoline. Plus, they inserted all the advertising grids, which give more than half of the income.

Monetization is a sore subject. With a publisher it can be difficult to make a soft balance, because most of them put money first and only.
If for you the quality of the game is an important point and, say, there is no desire to redo the balance for the sake of greater earnings, then be prepared for long conversations.
Ideally, your position should be stated at the initial stages of cooperation, so that there are less disagreements, although they always will be.

By monetization, I dare to suggest the following. This is a very delicate matter, and I think that it is almost impossible to find something concrete as formulas. In this matter, I am more inclined to intuition and the method of "trial and error." For example, you can break in this balance on a small group of people who will give adequate criticism.

From the real situation. When we had disagreements, and raised the issue of easing the balance, we wanted some concrete calculations, which, in fact, we could not provide. How this issue is resolved depends on the contract, your experience and mutual trust.

Testing is an important step, which must be taken very responsibly. Do not completely charge this to the publisher. As a rule, the developer is better guided in the project and can check many game moments more qualitatively. In turn, the publisher has dozens of devices at its disposal and can test your game for everyone, which is very cool.

A small result. If you do not have experience in the publication, then successfully run the first project alone can be very difficult. Therefore, it is probably worth thinking about the publisher, but again, you need to choose it very carefully, because in reality there are not so many good publishers, and the reviews about them are often very different and contradictory. If there are any doubts about a potential partner, then it’s probably better not to get involved with it. As for our project, I believe that the publisher has become relatively loyal, and this is undoubtedly a good plus for every indie developer. In any case, be very careful about this issue, especially when signing the contract, and try to discuss everything in advance.

Publisher opinion

In general, both parties are satisfied with the cooperation. True, as the producer said, I am an authoritarian idealist and, moreover, I do not know how to think strategically and set priorities. From this go all the differences, but it is sometimes useful. In disputes, you can often come to an excellent solution that will benefit everyone.

Bonus - BlackBerry and Amazon

Here we must pay tribute to the publisher. He himself was engaged in finishing these platforms, although there were not very many edits, but still nice. Access to the new platform is always a good plus, especially when the minimum cost of integration.

BlackBerry received features (US, Canada, Russia), and the total downloads are already about 60 thousand. This is pretty good for such a small platform, a nice bonus.



And it’s too early to talk about Amazon - there are about 1,000 installations there.

Results

In total, there are already more than 4 million units, which is quite solid, even if we take free2play into account. Although here I must say that this model is often unpleasant, at least for me ... There are some good examples of f2p, but keeping the balance between a soft game and a donat is a very difficult task. In this regard, we have a big drawback and in the future we need to improve this moment.

I am glad that the game engine is well chosen. Unity3d still suits us completely.

And finally, two tips for developers:

1. Do not pull the development of the game alone. Independently bring the project to the final state - a rather difficult task. Find one or two people who like your idea and develop together with such a team.

2. Strive to make an interesting game, and do not bother ahead of time about the publication. To show someone a project, bring it at least to the state of a working prototype. In general, if there is a good product, then the publisher will find you himself, or, alternatively, there will be no sense in it at all.